Many modern machines used in earthworking, construction, mining, agriculture and similar industries utilize specialized implements for performing various tasks. Certain machines have long been designed to couple with and utilize a variety of implements, the implements being selected based upon the particular work performed by the machine. While the desirability of flexibility in implement-machine compatibility has long been recognized, certain machines are less amenable than others to use with different classes of implements, often because the overall machine design has traditionally been directed to relatively narrow applications. Motor graders and the like represent one group of machines which, while performing very well in certain tasks such as road grading and snow removal, have been limited in their use in nontraditional applications. As a result, motor graders often sit idle when their owners and operators would like to be able to use them. The limitation on motor graders to work in only certain applications relates to a certain extent to the overall machine design, as well as the means by which they are traditionally manufactured.
Motor graders typically include a grader blade suspended below the machine's frame, and mounted in the middle of the machine between the front and back wheels. Due to this design, a motor grader cannot swap implements as readily as certain other machines, such as loaders, which typically have front mounted implements. If an implement is to be mounted to a motor grader, the machine can in some instances be driven around the implement such that the implement coupling mechanism is positioned close enough to the implement for mounting. This approach, however, works less well, if at all, with implements that are relatively long, as the machine often cannot readily turn tightly enough due to its long frame to position the coupling mechanism close enough to the implement for easy mounting. Motor graders also often have factory installed blades, which tend to be relatively labor intensive to uncouple and replace. Despite these challenges to implement mounting, there remain strong incentives to increase the utilization of motor graders.
One means by which engineers have attempted to broaden the range of motor grader use has been via supplementary attachments which couple directly to a motor grader blade. U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,013 to Waldron is one such device, and provides a dirt distribution device that attaches to an earth moving blade of a grader. In Waldron's design, the supplementary device is mounted to an adjustable support arm that mounts the device to an outboard end of the blade. While Waldron's strategy may improve the performance of a motor grader in certain types of operations, the system falls short of adapting a motor grader for truly new uses, and requires the supplementary device to be coupled to and work in concert with the existing grader blade.
The present disclosure is directed to one or more of the problems or shortcomings set forth above.